| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| n/a |
Posted - 27/01/2010 : 18:57:37
hey guys. ive had Cherry for just over a year now and since she was about 6 months i have had real problems feeding her. every feed is a real battle and im finding it so frustrating. ive read up on advice for non feeding snakes and have tried all the suggestions but nothing seems to work. She's approximately 18 months old now and still on one fuzzy a feed and on average she will only eat one every 2 weeks or so. i try to feed her every 5-7 days but 9 times out of 10 she will refuse it. she almost seems scared of it. My friend bought a hatchling from the same litter as Cherry and this snake is like twice the size of Cherry. im getting really worried :(
what's a normal length/weight for a snake this age?
Any advice would be great!
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| 8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| SexyBear77 |
Posted - 28/01/2010 : 19:15:22
I've just had a look at the pics of her shedding aswell and the mouse looks absolutely soaking, maybe put the mouse in a sandwhich bag before putting it in the water to keep it dry, or just leave it out at room temp to defrost naturally. |
| SexyBear77 |
Posted - 28/01/2010 : 19:10:50
Maybe try moving her down a size to see if she feels more "confident" with it. |
| eeji |
Posted - 28/01/2010 : 19:06:57
There's a few things you can do to help her out:
You need to get her into a smaller enclosure preferably one that looks way too small, use newspaper substrate, feed her in the tub you keep her in and don't handle her at all except for moving her while changing the paper.
Get hold of some reptoboost and use that in the water, this will help her gut bacteria optimise. Also try rat pinkys instead of mouse fuzzys
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| n/a |
Posted - 28/01/2010 : 18:59:23
p.s. have posted up some pics in the photo section of Cherry during her post shed feed, a rare occasion where she fed with no fuss. Does she look a decent size in the pictures? i mean aside from the food-phobia she seems to have developed she seems very healthy and happy. so maybe im worrying over nothing?
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| n/a |
Posted - 28/01/2010 : 18:43:57
Yeah Riff raff and magenta are eating fine. They're on 3 pinkies each as of this week :) so no problems there.
My feeding method is as follows:
i warm up the frozen mouse in warm water until defrosted. i then pop the mouse in hotter water just for a minute or so to warm it up. I then get cherry out and pop her in a large tuppaware box and use tongs to offer her the mouse.
Her instant reaction is to run/slither very quickly away from the mouse as if she's scared of it.
I've tried wriggling the mouse
I've tried keeping the mouse still
ive tried braining, disembowling etc
i've tried leaving the prey in her viv overnight
Cherry's about 2 and a half foot long and quite slender.
Enclosure wise she's definitely due an upgrade. Ive bought her a new viv from a mate of mine but i need to modify it into sections as its far too big for her at the moment. (going to post a thread about advice on that at a later stage cos i have no idea what im doing lol)
I handle her a few times a week for about 5-15 minutes depending on her mood.
She's been on fuzzies since about June last year i think. And no she wasnt a problem to feed before that. its definietly since i moved her to fuzzies that ive had problems. She is definitely growing and gaining weight just very slowly. the two little'uns are rapidly catching her up and they're both a year younger than she is.
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| Kellog |
Posted - 27/01/2010 : 23:56:21
Same questions as SB and Eeji I am afraid...the more info we have the more we can try and help (I say we when I mean those who know what they are talking about  !!)
How long has she been on fuzzies? Was she this hard to feed before moving her up? What is her weight and is she gaining weight?
Am assuming you have gone through this link - http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3720
xxx |
| eeji |
Posted - 27/01/2010 : 19:41:28
same question as SB, what have you tried so far? and how big is Cheery and what size enclosure do you have her in?
Also do you handle her and if so, how often and for how long? |
| SexyBear77 |
Posted - 27/01/2010 : 19:09:26
So sorry to hear you are having so many problems- I take it Riff Raff and Magenta are eating fine?
I can't help you with normal length and weight I'm afraid, all mine are big!
It might be useful to try and video a feeding attempt so we can all study it, see if there is anything tiny that might be the cause. If you really have exhausted absolutely everything I'm not sure what else to suggest.
Out of interest, what things have you tried? |
